BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Rain or shine, UAB's spring football practices aren't just focused on winning games in the fall.

"We need to focus on winning on a daily basis," head coach Garrick McGee said. "We're not talking about success in the fall or in games, we're talking about success today. How can we get better today and win the day? That's what we're going to concentrate on and build up as many as we possibly can so when there is a time for competition, the score will take care of itself if we put up enough good days together."

UAB's fourth practice was spent in rainy conditions on the UAB practice field with temperatures in the low 50s. Practicing in the elements is good for any football team, but practicing on a field with poor footing is never easy.

"Football is played in the elements," McGee said. "That doesn't really affect you. The surface affects you. It affects your timing. There's guys sliding around the field. It's hard to work on the timing of the passing game. It's hard to get traction with the linemen pushing back and forth. That was a major factor, but football's played in the element. Our game's played outside.

"The elements, we play football. That's good. Quarterbacks have to throw wet balls, so yeah that's good to have to handle the ball in the element. The surface is what's hard on the kids. It really puts them at risk."

Quarterbacks had to deal with throwing wet balls and receivers had to try and catch them. McGee is pleased with his top quarterbacks - returning starter Austin Brown, experienced senior Jonathan Perry and freshman Jeremiah Briscoe - after the early part of spring practice.

"I think they've done well," McGee said. "They're very good in the meetings. I can tell that they've learned a lot. We spent a lot of time with them not just teaching them our plays, but teaching them defensive structure, the way the defenses have to go about putting 11 to defend them on the field and how offenses fit within the defensive structure.

"It's teaching the overall concepts of football. I do know that they see more on the field. They understand who was the flat defender. They can tell me the free safety was the flat defender because he had his shoulders square. They have better answers for me, so I've been very pleased."

On Briscoe, who enrolled this spring, McGee said, "Doing very good. He's a really good player. We're really fortunate to have him in our program."

UAB resumes practice Friday afternoon around 5 p.m. and Saturday morning around 9:30 a.m. All practices are open to the public. McGee said the Blazers would not scrimmage this Saturday, but get some good, live work in at the end.

"We just want to continue with the process of developing our technique and fundamentals," McGee said. "We're not really interested in rolling the ball out there and just play. We want to get better in the offseason."